After Three Failed Tries, Tony Martin Cobbles Together a Yellow Jersey

German Tony Martin of team Ettix – Quick-Step celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win Stage 4 on Tuesday.

Zuma Press

Tony Martin kept missing. Whether it was a second here, a time bonus there, or a freakish performance by a rival, everything was conspiring against him. Martin, a German rider for the Etixx-Quick-Step team, seemed destined never to wear the Tour de France leader’s yellow jersey.

On Tuesday, as the race crossed from Belgium onto French soil, Martin finally changed his luck. He survived 13.3 kilometers of cobblestones on the Tour’s longest stage before launching a solo attack 3.1 km from the finish line.

By the end of the Tour’s fourth day, he became the fourth different man to wear yellow. He now leads Chris Froome of Team Sky by 12 seconds in the overall classification—which suits Froome just fine. (Martin isn’t a serious contender for the overall race victory and not wearing the yellow jersey so early in the three-week race takes some pressure off Team Sky.)

Martin’s misfortunes began on day one. Saturday’s opening time-trial in Utrecht seemed like a tailor-made opportunity for Martin, a three-time world champion in the discipline. This was his chance to wear the yellow jersey for the first time in his career. Except it also happened to be the day that Rohan Dennis of BMC Racing chose to ride the fastest Tour de France time-trial in history. Dennis averaged 34.45 miles an hour to break Chris Boardman’s 21-year-old record of 34.3 mph. Martin finished five seconds back.